Racheal did not know how to bring up the issue that she needed to get on birth control. She worried that Steffan may misinterpret it as her not wanting a child with him.But that was not it at all. She just did not want to have a baby with him under their current circumstances. At least not yet.She may have been a virgin, but she knew once was enough to make a baby.And the thought that a baby might just be cooking in her belly at this moment frightened her.But it did not frighten her enough to refuse Steffan the next morning, when he woke up to see her watching him .“If I did not know you well, I would have said you were just now thinking of all possible ways to murder me.” Steffan smiled up at her.Racheal laughed. “You already had a shower.” He said, moving close to sniff her hair. “You smell delicious.” She wove her hand around his neck, and hugged him close to herself,“How are you, in pain?’Racheal shook her head. “Just a little sore.” “Sure?” “Yes.” “You know what c
“This or this?” Racheal asked, holding up two floral dresses. Steffan had just told her to dress up for lunch.“Any you prefer.” He said, smiling up from his tablet. She made a face. “I asked you to pick.” He smiled, and really looked at the dresses. “The one that would let me better admire your cleavage.”Racheal gasped, and laughed as she looked down at the low cut dress. “You’re an uncultured man.” She said.“Turning you into an uncultured woman too, princess.” He said, staring back down at his tablet. Racheal laughed, and dropped the dress on the bed. She returned the other dress to the closet.Steffan still had his head buried in his tablet when she returned, so she padded quietly up to him and peered in to see what was so interesting to capture his attention. He was watching videos online. He swiped up, and the next video was a ballroom. It looked magical. But he snickered.“What?” She asked“You like these sorts of things?’ He stared up at her.“I have never been to
Steffan helped Racheal out of her chair, and the couple went to stand at the edge of the balcony.She placed her hand on the balustrade, and looked out at the resort below. Steffan stood behind her.“It’s so high up.” She said, as she looked down.“Mhmm hmm.” Steffan responded, kissing her neck. She smiled, and moved her hand back to caress his hair.“When did you buy this place?’ She asked.“When I turned twenty-four.” He replied, lifting his head up from her neck.He wrapped his hand around her waist, and held her close against his chest.“You should be one of your father’s biggest competitors in the hospitality business.” She felt him smile. “We serve different customers.“How?” “This place is best for getaways. No one would drive hours to come have a serious business meeting here.” Steffan said.She nodded and continued to watch the main road far off. She knew he admired his father. It was evident in how he decided to invest in the same businesses his father did, and now she
The shop staff walked out, and Racheal leaned in to wipe her lipstick off Steffan’s lips. She went up to the mirror and saw kiss marks all over her neck, and halfway to her chest.She stared at the mirror in dismay. She did not bring her purse here, so she had nothing to wipe the stains away.“Here.” Steffan said behind her. She turned to see he was offering her his handkerchief. “Thank you.” She said, taking it from him. She turned back to the mirror, and began to wipe her neck and chest.She occasionally glanced at Steffan through the mirror. He was still frowning.“Why are you embarrassed?’ He asked suddenly.“What?” She stared at him through the mirror. What did he mean, someone just walked in on them, how could she not be embarrassed?“We are married to Racheal. What were they expecting when they left newlyweds alone in a room?” She did not say anything. They were not exactly newlyweds anymore, and how could the staff here have suspected they would be making out in a pu
Steffan placed the big dress box in the trunk of the car, as Racheal got in the passenger seat. Usually, one of their guards would have done that. It was nice to experience life as normal people.She put on her seatbelt, as Steffan climbed into the car. “How are you feeling?” He glanced at her.“Fine.” She responded, wondering why he would suddenly ask that.You have not taken your medication today.” He said, pulling the car out of the building.“I took them earlier this morning while you were still asleep.” “Oh.” He nodded. She watched him drive quietly, a thousand thoughts swimming in her head. “When you said I was embarrassed of you, after we returned from the stadium. Why did you say that?”She saw his jaw begin to grind, and he gripped the wheels more tightly. She held her breath watching him. If she knew this would upset him so much, she would not have said anything. She waited quietly, deciding that if he did not respond now, she would never ask him again.She could li
“Just as I predicted. Perfection.” Nico said, as he stepped back to look at Racheal in her dress. Marie, the makeup artist, was also smiling proudly at her handiwork.“Thank you.” Steffan said to Nico as a way of dismissing his team. “You’re all done right?” Racheal held her lips to avoid bursting into laughter. He was impatient to get them all out of the room.“Yes sir.” Nico replied, still smiling. The man was obviously missing the hint that Steffan wanted all of them out of the room, because he kept admiring the hair, and walking round the big ball of ruffles that was the dress she stood in.Steffan walked up to them, stopped, and took his phone out. “Step aside.” He said quietly to Nico. “Here baby.” He turned to her. Racheal smiled at him. She heard the sound of the phone camera click twice, then Steffan returned the phone to his pocket.Nico was still admiring his work, and all his team members were watching her too.“Are you forgetting anything Nico.” Racheal finally spok
“You do?” Racheal asked, looking up at Steffan. How did they know each other?“Yes.” Steffan said, returning his hand to his pocket. He and Alvaro stared at each other, doing what men often did, sizing themselves up. “You look lovely.” Jade said, ignoring the men to hug her.“As do you.” Racheal smiled, hugging her friend. She did not miss the fact that Jade carefully avoided her injured arm. She was impressed that the woman remembered what arm had been injured even with the concealing makeup.“Not nearly as good as you.” Jade said gently, pulling away. “Everyone is talking about you.”“Who is everyone?”“Those women at the back are just one of many.” Jade said, gesturing behind.Racheal glanced behind her, but could not see more than a few metres off. The room was hazy with false smoke.She turned her attention back to Jade, not without noticing Alvaro and Steffan were whispering quietly between themselves.“Your friend is here, I saw him out back with your assistant and some o
“She sent you an invite?” Racheal asked, as Steffan moved with her across the dance floor, his hand on her waist.“Yes.”“So this was pre-planned after all.” She muttered to herself.She saw a flash of anger in his eyes. And then he shook his head. “No dear wife. Initially I had no idea she sent the invite. My P.A knows I cannot be bothered with things like that. I only found out I had an invite when I asked her to get us a pass to the ball earlier today.Racheal immediately felt sorry for doubting him at all. “Look at me Racheal” He said, when he noticed that she was avoiding his eyes. “I am sorry about the party.”“Why?” She asked in surprise.“This was supposed to be a part of your quiet getaway. I had no idea the whole of bloody Yin would be here.”Racheal shook her head. “Our getaway.” She said. He smiled, and kissed her forehead.“I want you to enjoy the party.”“I want you to enjoy it too.” Racheal said. Stefan rolled his eyes, causing her to giggle. “I mean it.”“You are
“Mind Skylar’s head.” Steffan said, watching her get out of the car. Racheal cradled six month-old Skylar’s head in her arms and got out of the car. Steffan turned and walked ahead towards the courthouse. She knew he did not like this, neither did her mother, but she wanted to lead a new life from now on.She would only allow any dispute to be settled by the court no matter how long it took, instead of the torture, killing and all they had done up to the point that she had Sterling.“Maman," Sterling said, peeking his head around his father’s shoulders.“Yes, baby.”“Maman.” He said again, and she smiled at him. Steffan adjusted him in his arms as they walked into the building.It was an informal courtroom, and the biggest case in Xen. This case was what had disgraced Roslyn and made her lose the elections. Journalists waited outside for the final hearing.She and Steffan sat side by side after the judge took her seat, and the accused began to be escorted in by the cops. Roslyl
Racheal followed Steffan into his house quietly. His housekeeper greeted her warmly. She nodded at the woman. She was surprised to see Chef Bennett come out.“Dinner in five minutes, sir.” Then he paused. “Mrs Sherrod.” He bowed.“Make a place for two,” Steffan said. Those were the first words he had said, since she told him she missed him.“Sure, Sir.” Chef Bennett responded.“You kept him?” Racheal asked, as Steffan led the way upstairs. “You liked him.” He said simply.She said nothing more. He surprisingly led the way to his bedroom on the second floor. It was a dark masculine room, wide, dark and intimidating.She stood in the middle, unsure of how to act, or what to do next.He dropped his bag on the bed, and glanced at her.“I am sorry I hurt you.” She said. He paused, midway into sitting on the bed, then started to take his tie off.“That’s rare. Women never apologize.”She made a face at him. But continued anyway. “I was conflicted. I wanted to be with you, but I was
Racheal sat on the toilet bowl, staring at the pregnancy test kit. It clearly read positive. In denial, she took others. They read the same thing.She hurried back to her room and pulled on a dress. It would be stupid to make the same mistake twice. She sat nervously in the backseat as her chauffeur took her to the hospital.She waited nervously as her blood got drawn, and patiently waited for the doctor.She could not smile back as the doctor said.“Congratulations Mrs Sherrod. Would you like to see your baby?”She climbed the table, and stared at the ceiling as the doctor smeared a cold gel on her flat belly.“You are about seven weeks pregnant.” The doctor said excitedly. “Look at your baby.” She held her breath and turned.She could hear the heartbeat of the fetus as the doctor pointed out where the baby was in the sac. It was so tiny, she burst into tears.The doctor helped her up and soothed her, telling her it was OK to cry, that days like these were an emotional day for
The president is dead did not cover the horror of how Spencer Sherrod had died. He stared at his father’s coffin the next morning as the priest talked on and on. He had wanted to kill this man. He had wanted to kill him with his own hand, so why was he reacting this way to the man’s death?His mind kept going back to how Spencer had looked in the video he had seen. He was headed for a meeting, surrounded by his guards, edgy and nervous, and alone.The old woman had come from the crowd, begging an audience. He had hesitated, but asked them to let her through. The woman had hugged him, even as his guards had yelled that it was against protocol.One had even reached out to pull her away. Then flames. He shook his head as he remembered the explosion sound. They had quickly found out the woman was the journalist’s aged mother. The journalist Spencer had killed at Racheal’s office.He felt someone squeeze his arm. He looked down at the little woman. She was the only good thing in
“We should start moving. I don’t want Limuel’s men to find us here," he said as he stocked the fire. She dropped a plate of Ramen in front of him. He smiled up at her, and she smiled back.He did not mind if he lost all his wealth, and became doomed to this kind of life, as long as he had her. She was all he wanted now, all he had ever wanted really from the day he met her.“It will be a few hours still before we can start moving.” She responded. He nodded and picked up his meal. She walked closer and sat beside him. He turned to her, caressed her cheek, and kissed her lightly. She returned his kiss, enthusiastically, the way he remembered, the way he liked.He loved how much she loved his touch. They were soon grappling at each other, their meal forgotten. He squeezed her warm soft body as she moaned his name and dug into his back. He savored the warmness of her, the fullness of her curve, the lusty way she matched his thrusts, squeezing tight around him.He did not want to
Racheal sat shocked, staring at Steffan’s face, just barely able to see it in the near darkness. But she could see clearly enough the honesty in there. His blue eyes were clear and honest, open and pleading.“You should have said that when I wanted to hear it.” She said, shaking her head, starting to move away. But he held her.“I should have. I was a fool not to have.”“I even told you once that I loved you. You said nothing.”“I am sorry.”“Stop apologising. It won’t fix anything," she said, trying to pull away. She did not have to hear this, she did not want to hear this. It would make leaving him that much more difficult. It was easier walking away from a man who hurt her, and had never admitted to loving her even once. But now…“Racheal.” He said, taking her face between his hands. “I love you. I have always loved you. My heart stops at the thought of losing you. The day Isaac told me you were dying, the day you sent that divorce document, my heart completely stopped beatin
“I thought you changed. Apparently, you did not," Steffan said finally, looking away. “You are still as stubborn and careless as ever.”His words stung her.“Careless? You sound like I got some warning that a certain Limuel was after me and ignored it.”“I tried to warn you. I sent a dozen messages, tried to make an appointment,” he blew up.She shrank back. Well. There was no way she would have known. She had his number blocked, so there was no way she could have seen his messages. She still did not know how he had gotten her new contact number by the way. She could not think of any of her staff who could have given him her personal number.She knew he was in contact with Isaac, but could Isaac have given him the number?“After all that has happened to you, I don’t know how you can still put yourself in danger like this.”“One could say I was in danger, hiding with you in a storm like this. At least Maman would think so.” She said quietly, lowering herself to the floor. That got
“What are you doing?” Racheal asked as she watched Steffan walk towards one of the many couches in the room. He said nothing.He placed a bright flashlight she suspected he must have found wherever he found the axe on the floor, lighting the whole room up. He raised the axe, and began to hack at the couch.She stared at him in shock, at first not understanding what he was doing. Then she turned back, and shut the heavy bolt on the door. He had to make fire somehow, or they would freeze to death before the storm was over. Between the both of them, they could probably buy a million couches for this family.She walked further into the living room, past him, checking the whole place out. The only place that was open to them was the hallway, the open kitchen in the living room, and a tiny bathroom at the end of the hallway. All the other rooms were firmly locked. She was not very eager to ruin their locks like she did the front door.She walked towards the kitchen, and turned on th
“What? Why?” Racheal screamed in confusion as she watched Limuel’s guards pull a limp Steffan up.Then they began to pull him to pull him away, his tall frame causing his foot to drag behind him.“I had a suspicion he might come here.” Limuel said, pulling out a big cigar.“What did we do to you?” She asked, looking from Limuel to Steffan, who was being dragged away.“I have no problems with the Sherrods. Just you.”“What?” She asked just as she saw Limuel’s toddler run out of the house. The guards tried to stop the child who was not warmly dressed for the weather. The toddler screamed. He just wanted his father.Lukas Limuel turned at the commotion. “Let him through," he said, standing up. The child broke through the barrier of guards, and ran into his father’s arms.“I don’t have the time to explain anything. I hear your mother has suddenly returned from the dead. I believe she will pay a decent price in exchange for you as compensation for what your family did to us.” Lukas sa